Michael Mills joins Orchard Capital

New hedge fund Orchard Capital has hired Michael Mills from Citi after several weeks of rumours presaging his escape from prime broking but not revealing his ultimate destination.

The re-incarnation of Stark Investments in Asia under the new ownership of hedge fund wunderkinds Teall Edds and Stu Wilson was formally announced last week. Stark decided to focus on liquid investments, and its pair of Asian supremos took the reins.

Mills worked on the capital introductions desk at Citi's prime broking department in Hong Kong, reporting to Rimmo Jolly. At Orchard, he will be director of marketing and client relations based in Hong Kong.

"As you know, we have been hiring across the prime finance team in the region to support our growth, and that will continue," says Citi. No successor has been announced just yet.

In the recent AsianInvestor Service Provider awards, Mills finished in bronze medal position in the category of capital introductions specialist, behind Deutsche couple Marlin Naidoo and Harvey Twomey and just ahead of UBS's Hugh Abdullah. Before joining Citi, Mills had worked in the same role at UBS.